Stepp fires first no hitter for Blackburn

Blackburn College Sophomore Left-handed pitcher Bubby Stepp pitched the first no-hitter in Blackburn history by blanking Eureka College 7-0 on Friday afternoon in Eureka. Stepp faced the minimum as three Eureka baserunners that reached via two errors and one walk were erased by a pickoff and two double plays.

The Beavers opened the first inning with four straight hits to take a 2-0 lead after one. Blayten Magana and Tyler Durand had RBI hits in the inning. An RBI double by Shane Lewis made it 3-0 after two. Richard Cardenas had an RBI double in the fourth to make it 4-0. Joey Szerletich led off the fifth inning with a homerun to stretch the lead to 5-0. Gregorio Costilla had an RBI in a two-run seventh to wrap up the scoring.

The story of the day was Stepp, he struck out six hitters while allowing just that one walk.

"Bubby was just outstanding for us, it was his best outing of the year in regards to getting ahead of hitters and then his slider was really on," said Blackburn Coach Mike Neal. "It was really exciting for our guys down the stretch knowing that a no-hitter was brewing."

"I didn't pay attention to it," I actually didn't know I had one going, no one said anything," said Stepp. "I guess I realized it when everyone came running out to the mound after the last out," said Stepp.

The game ended on a 1-6-3 double play and Stepp's teammates mobbed him on the mound.

Game two did not fare as well for the Beavers as Blackburn dropped the nitecap 8-7. The Beavers jumped ahead in the first 2-0 before a miss played flyball, a walk, wild pitch and passed ball allowed Eureka to tie the game.

Eureka scored one in the second and four in the third to jump ahead 7-2 off Blackburn starter Jarrett Sandlin. Sandlin struggled before settling down with two scoreless innings. In five innings pitched Sandlin walked six and hit two batters.

Blackburn started to rally back with a three-run homerun by Magana to cut the lead to 7-5. Eureka extended the lead on a solo homerun to go up 8-5 after eight innings.

The Beavers rallied with two more in the 9th and had the tying run on third when the game ended. RJ Rios had his second hit in at many at-bats with a two-run single to cut the lead to 8-7.

Blackburn is now 2-10 on the season and 1-1 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.